Until a relatively recent moment in history, news could travel no faster than 35 miles/hour. After the wedding of the telegraph to the photograph, television was conceived. Even in its infancy, it made the world smaller each day. Wars, Earthquakes and murder entered living rooms acrosss America.
How do you respond to global news? I doubt your life changes at all when you hear there was a murder in the city nearest to you. Maybe you sent some money to the recent tsunami survivors. Maybe you voted a certain way because of the war. All this is another way of saying, you did very little of consequence.
But, if Postman's thesis is correct, the technologies that bring us global news also carry with them an idea that changes how we view the world. This idea, that information need not be responded to, has...in my opinion...had a dramatic impact on how people view church. Sermons, Bible studies, even 'devotions' simply become something we hear/see/do...not something we respond to.
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